OPAL

OPAL is a STEM textbook written for students aged 10 to 14 who are curious enough to ask about quantum physics but keep getting told to wait until university. It doesn't make them wait.

Across eleven chapters — Quantum Physics, Astrophysics, Optics, Trigonometry, Calculus, Probability and Statistics, Genetics, Organic Chemistry, Synthetic Biology, Immunology, and Neuroscience — OPAL takes ideas usually reserved for advanced courses and breaks them down with analogies, stories, and experiments a middle-schooler can actually run.

The name is the method. Each chapter asks students to Observe something real, Problem-solve their way to understanding it, Apply it to a global issue, and Lead by teaching it to someone else. Built in collaboration with Inspire Citizens (Bangkok), the book pairs every topic with UN Sustainable Development Goal applications, job-shadowing profiles of real scientists, and myth-busting sections that tackle the stereotypes students have already absorbed about who gets to do science.